


Foreboding

by darkrogue1 (Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse)



Series: Hear the Nightingale's Song [1]
Category: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Gen, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 22:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12640842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse/pseuds/darkrogue1
Summary: When Peter Grant comes to visit his parents, his father is composing





	Foreboding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alexiel-neesan (alyyks)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyyks/gifts).



When I opened the front door to my parents' flat, I heard the sound of an unknown music on dad's keyboard. I checked the living room and the kitchen and found no sign of mum. I went to knock on the door.

"Dad ?"

"Come in." I heared, so I opened the door. He was at this keyboard indeed, surrounded by his records' library. Lord Grant in his throne room.

"Your mum's visiting family." He said, then he went on humming, and stroke a chord, jotted it down.

"What's that ?" I asked. I didn't recognise the melody, but the tune was catchy.

"Old French ditty." said Dad. "Thought I'd surprise your mum."

I nodded to myself. I sure sounded like what she liked and there's nothing like Jazz to bring old song up to date. "What's it about ?" That's the trouble with being a policeman, you never break the habit of asking questions.

Dad fumbled in the papers in front of him, pulled a sheet and gave it to me. "Heard you were learning tongues, what do you make of that ?"

I looked at the paper, read the first few lines.

_Il était là-bas dans mon pays, où il fait bon compter fleurette_

_Il était là-bas dans mon pays, du vieux Baron un des marquis._

Bloody French. Now don't get me wrong. I'm can almost read Latin without the Cassell, and I'm getting better at old English, but French ? French is a pain to read. Still I tackled on.

_Le marquis tomba à la folie amoureux d'une soubrette_

_Le marquis tomba à la folie et bien sûr elle le lui rendit_

Powerful man, young girl, falling madly in love. That much I got, it's standard theme. But I couldn't help but feel uneasy with the Baron mentioned in the first lines. It felt too voodoo to my taste, reminded me too much of my line of work.

_Un jour pris de jalousie il enferma sa maitresse_

_Un jour pris de jalousie dans la Folie qu'il lui construisit._

_Et plus personne ne la revit, au marché ou à confesse_

_Et plus personne ne la revit, sa maitresse d'une nuit._

Well, a sad story of a domestic I guessed. Man gets possessive, locks the girl up, somehow that doesn't agree with her and she dies. Now don't get me wrong, but that is kind of depressing for such a catchy song.

_Et jamais il ne s'en remit, de sa jeune belle maitresse_

_Et jamais il ne s'en remit, une vie pour une vie._

And remorseful he pays for her life with his ? I doubted that was much of a romantic song, and told as much to dad, who laughed.

"That's the superficial reading son. Nursery rhymes are often deeper than that, like a Ring o' Roses about the plague, and they are mostly meant to hide gossip and satire. This one is about desperate love."

"He still locks her up."

Dad nodded."To protect her most likely, but she still died in childbirth. _A life for a life_. And she wouldn't have been only a one night stand if he'd build her an extravagant house. Thought you'd know, with you living in one..."

_In the Folly he'd build for her._ A folly, like the one where the SAU's headquarters are at is an extravagant house, named so as "a costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder or the buyer." Of course. 

The song still didn't agree with me, it left me with a strange metallic taste in the mouth, like old magic, however catchy the tune might be, and I tucked it in a corner of my mind, soon to be forgotten. 

It's a sad truth you never know what's relevent until after the fact.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't shake the feeling that at some point, Nightingale's going to end up locked inside the Folly.


End file.
